One Month

Has it been one month already?? I can't believe I've been at Kenmei for almost four weeks. Are all my months going to fly by this fast? I hope not, I rather like it here.

First, some more random observations.

I didn't even think about this until earlier this week, but the tap water is good here. While I'm a pretty adventurous eater, I am very picky about my water. I have been spoiled growing up on Champaign-Urbana's Mahomet Aquifer water, and I usually have troubles in other parts of the US. When traveling internationally, the tap water is often unsafe and and we have to drink only from water bottles, which is a pain and I prefer not to drink bottled water, which often tastes stale. So anyway, I realized the tap water here is clean and tastes good, and I am grateful for that.

As cold season is approaching, more masks are coming out. At first, when I saw people with masks, my natural reaction was, "Oh my gosh what disease do you have, stay away from me," but now I barely notice them. People use them at the slightest signs of a cold, which is really considerate. As more people become sick, others wear masks, especially when using public transportation, when they are healthy, too, to prevent themselves from becoming sick. One of the American teachers at Kenmei told me that now she wears a mask during allergy season and her symptoms have dramatically improved. It's really a very smart concept, but unfortunately if you wear one in America people will think you have some dangerous contagious disease. You might try it though, if you get bad allergies. Also, a few of my classmates with colds wear little compresses on their necks and foreheads, and I think it's sort of cute and quaint.

The water bottles here are all Thermos-style, with screw-on caps. I haven't seen any clear plastic ones.

Everyone has these large forearm muscles that I don't have. I think it's from using chopsticks.

I went out shopping with friends a few days ago, and noticed that in a number of stores, the shopkeepers were constantly calling out "irasshaimase!" (come in), and possibly some other things, usually in the same high-pitched nasally tone. Even at the back of a big store, there were these two ladies on ladders in nearby aisles, folding or arranging clothes and not even looking at anyone, but continually yelling in their kind of annoying, robotic way, "irasshaimaseee."

More high school things - Because students stay in the same room all day, always at the same desk, they can leave their things by their desk and store schoolwork in a compartment under the desk, so there are no lockers. Well actually there are little cubical lockers right outside the classroom for storing books, but there aren't the full sized ones.

The desks and chairs are unattached, and the desks have a bar underneath that serves as a built-in foot rest. This means there is no need to rearrange desks so the one in front of you has that basket thing under the chair, if you know what I'm talking about.

And now, how have I been doing?

Still well, but things are less exciting. Also I am still really not a morning person. There are harder mornings, where I have trouble being friendly and cheerful to everyone, but by lunch things almost always improve. Gabbi says the same thing happens to her. My class is still being really nice, and I've been developing closer friendships. Natasya from Indonesia, who came to Kenmei the same day I did, left on Monday, which is really sad. I'm sure it was the first of many "It was so awesome knowing you, I'll miss you and probably never see you again"'s that will happen this year. That's a major downside of exchange I think.

Last week in school, one day everyone was taking tests, so us exchange students were told that we would just be in the English Lounge all day. Instead, some teachers from another school were visiting, and to make a good impression they had us greet them. I had to greet and bow to them at the door, hand them a bag to put their shoes in, point them to the Kenmei slippers, and replenish the shoe supply, with some more bowing thrown in. Natasya collected business cards, and Hannah handed out water bottles each in their own plastic bag, which we had filled earlier. Unfortunately, after many testing days in the past where Gabbi had to sit in the English Lounge on her own all day, with no one even checking on her, she chose to skip this morning, when we actually had to do something.

That's another thing. These little white plastic grocery-like bags are everywhere and used liberally. When the students buy their "pan" at lunch, they put their already individually wrapped goods, even if they only got one, in a bag for the walk to their classroom. It seems strange in a country that otherwise strikes me as efficient and resourceful.

I've been to three traditional Japanese dance lessons, and it does not come easily... Most of my dance is done in this uncomfortable pigeon-toed crouch, which just feels really awkward. It can look good when done right, though.

I finally started running again! It felt good and it's a nice way to get to know my area. I think I plan to keep a base of an hour run, every other day or so. I have been gaining weight, as everyone told me would happen, but I refuse to accept this :P

I met up with three friends from school to go shopping on Monday, because we had the day off! Unfortunately, there was a typhoon, and while my area of Osaka was unaffected, others had heavy storms. This meant some of the trains stopped working, and we had many difficulties meeting up. But it all worked out. At some point I really need to get myself a cellphone, but so far I have been borrowing my host mom's when I go out. I went to look at phones earlier, but all the plans were for two years, which I don't want. Gabbi is using the same company and got a nice plan, though, so I'll try to do that.

Our main shopping event was going to this jewelry store and all making bracelets together, which is now all the rage in my class. It was actually a really intense process, and took a couple hours. This super nice and patient shop lady helped us, working through all our indecisiveness. First we had to figure out our bracelet size, and then there was a board with indented circles in the various sizes to arrange the beads in. There were many choices of beads, in different sizes, and they all had meanings, like birthday stone, significant other, best friend, studying, and other things I didn't understand. Finally after our couple hours of changing out colors and patterns and sizes, we paid way too expensive prices and left them for a couple hours to be put on elastic string. The next day at school, we all proudly showed off our new bonds of friendship, and the next day other girls followed suit. Oh also the lady put on a little letter for all of our names, but they didn't have any "B"s, because I guess names don't start with "B" here! So I had to have an "H" instead.

After that I did my first purikura, which is like really advance photo booth that is very popular here. I was amazingly bad at it, because the picture always took longer than I expected, so I was generally caught coming out of a pose. But I'll be prepared next time! The setup was a photo booth, where five photos cost about $4, and an editing station outside to adjust eye size, face size, color, lighting, background, add text, and I'm sure other things. There was a limited amount of time to do this though, so people can't take forever. Then we could have the photos emailed to us as well as printed out, which I thought was a pretty good deal.

We had okonomiyaki afterward, which are kind of savory pancake-like things, with batter and shredded cabbage and then a variety of other toppings, like meat, seafood, egg, vegetables, or cheese. Some of them also have noodles cooked in, which is my favorite. Then sauce and mayonnaise is liberally spread on top, as with many things. It's fun because each table has its own griddle, where the servers make the okonomiyaki, and then we cut into them with our own little spatulas.

Things are about to get exciting, though! Tomorrow and Saturday is our big school festival, which is a hugee deal in Japan. We spent all day today preparing for it. Then on Sunday I finally have my Rotary district meeting, and get to meet my fellow Rotary Inbounds. Yay!